approx read time: 2 min.Wouldn’t it be great if you had a coach with you in the classroom whenever you wanted? You know, someone who watches you play your game, and then helps you adjust your technique.

Imagine you got a great idea from a blog post, Twitter chat or conference workshop over the weekend. You’re going to try it out Monday. Wouldn’t it be great if someone else could be there to watch and give you some feedback, engage in some reflection? Someone who knows the learning targets, but is free to watch the action unfold rather than be caught up in facilitating?

Or maybe you have a tried and true activity that could use a refresh. It flows wonderfully, but you want to build on it and take it to the next level. Unfortunately, when one is engaged in facilitating the lesson, opportunities to observe and learn as a teacher are few and far between.

One way to see it all is with the use of a tool like Swivl. This little robotic video stand offers a great option to observe and reflect on your practice. You can either set it in a convenient spot and let it go, or you can wear the marker and have it follow you around as you speak. Upload your video and watch at your leisure. And if you choose, you can invite others to comment by sharing your video. You can expand this out to filming students as they work individually, in small groups or presenting. Share clips with students as exemplars. Using Swivl is an easy way to step into using the ISTE educator standards as you strive to increase modeling, collaboration, and student choice. Use Swivl to:

(Facilitator) Manage the use of technology and student learning strategies.

(Analyst) Use technology to design and implement a variety of formative and summative assessments.

The return on investment for Swivl is excellent. At the time of this post, it retails for about $600. That’s a fantastic price point for next year’s school budget. It’s also an easy sell for a site like Donors Choose. And if you’re really feeling adventurous, write a mini-grant to cover the cost. Most mini-grants are big enough to cover 2 or a few extra markers that you can use to maximize the benefits. Leave a comment below to share how you’ve used Swivl or other video coaching methods to improve teaching and learning.

So much happened in the second half of 2017, I thought I'd catch up in this first post of 2018 and let you all know what I've been up to. It's been a busy fall as I settle into my new role as an an independent consultant. Getting a business up and running is something new for me and I'm happy to report that things are falling into place. So... what have I been up to you may ask? Well the real question is, what haven't I been up to? First, training and presentations! I had the pleasure of working with John Sowash of Sowash Ventures to provide Google training for a few schools to start the year. I tagged along with him to Chandler Park Academy to get the middle school staff up to speed on Chromebooks. Then it was off to Rochester, NY for a day with the elementary staff at Manchester-Shortsville. I also presented at Bay Arenac ISD's back to school PD on Google mapping tools (check out my maps in g-drive!), VR in the classroom, non-boring lectures and formative assessment tools. Mi Google was my next stop, with a session targeted to ELA teachers. Their favorites? symbaloo.edu, newsela, and read&write; all great resources for any content area. Finally keynoting the MANSsecond annual tech gathering with a great session on empathy and tech integration. Second, Internet safety and digital citizenship. I've been working with the team at Protect Young Eyes visiting schools and churches from Grand Rapids, MI to Dallas, TX sharing an their incredible Internet safety message to kids k-12 and parents. It's been amazing! I'm also pleased to have been the lead curriculum designer for PYE's newest project, Virtue in Media, a faith-based k-8 digital citizenship curriculum. Last but not least, Aquinas College, College of Ed Field Supervisor. I'm just starting my second semester as a student teacher field supervisor. It's such a privilege to work so closely with pre-service teachers. It's so valuable to see teaching through their eyes and to visit so many classrooms and schools throughout the Grand Rapids area. Not sure who's learning more, them or me! I've also been invited to present in their seminars on design thinking, tech integration, and Understanding by Design. To top it all off, I've got a couple of proposals out for work this spring and next fall. I'm getting ready to present at the GVSU Math in Action Conference as well as MACUL and I've moved a few books from the 'to read' to the 'read that' list. The one that's made the biggest impression on me is Mathematical Mindsets. Look for a complete review in my next post. So... here we go 2018 seatbelts fastened! It's going to be a wild ride... :)

(reading time 2.5 min.) Author: Carol GlanvilleThis week has been a flurry of activity as we put the finishing touches on our inaugural spring student showcase. This year, we’re showcasing work from the 1st year of our design thinking in the classroom initiative, aka. innovatED.A bit of history. Last spring we started exploring how we might bring the design thinking (aka human-centered design process) to our schools. We discovered that Xavier University in Cincinnati has an undergrad degree program in exactly that. So, we connected with them and created a customized 4-day workshop where staff from five or our schools, St Thomas, All Saints Academy, St Pat’s Parnell, West Catholic and Catholic Central participated as teams of teachers to learn all about it. We also explored coding, computational thinking, simple design software, 3-d printing and much more. We all left excited about the possibilities and many of us, without any experience in such things, were emboldened to discover how simple it really was! For more information on that program check out this posting from my blog archive: Innovate with Empathy.Over the course of this year, we’ve continued to support each other, sharing our successes, failures and learnings along the way. The culmination of that work will be on display this coming Thursday, April 27 at Aquinas College. Teachers, students and administrators will be on hand to demonstrate and discuss how we’ve implemented this process and how it is related to future curriculum planning.We’ve also made some exciting new connections throughout this experience. We’ve been invited to host sessions related to this work at the annualMACUL(Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) conference, theiie(Institute for Innovation in Education) gathering at U of M, and Aquinas College School of Education. We’ve also made some valuable new connections partnering with local industry experts to demonstrate the connection from school to life; Kendall College of Art & Design, IDEO/Steelcase, Spectrum Hospitals Architecture and West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology, and the design team atMercy Health Innovation Hub In addition, by participating in West Michigan Design Week events, we’ve connected with Wolverine WorldWide and a localStanford d.schoolconsultant.

This exciting work has helped us broaden our reach and stands to benefit our schools not only in terms of the skills we teach our students but in ever-growing access to real-world application of learning and partnerships that can enhance our educational programming.

Please join usat the showcase to explore and celebrate the innovative teaching, learning and administrative practices of our journey thus far. As an added benefit, you’ll also have the opportunity to see the Documentary Screenagers; Growing up in the Digital Age. We showed this film last fall to a sell-out crowd of 300. It was very well-received and this showcase event provides the perfect venue for screening it again for those who missed the first go-round.The event is free. The showcase is open-house style with no ticket needed. However, you do need to reserve seat(s) for the film. Follow this link for complete event details.

reading time 2 minutesOne of the programs we’ve been developing alongside our Learners 2 Leaders 1:1 program is the student tech support team. Since it’s inception 3 years ago, the student help desk support team at Catholic Central as grown from a couple volunteers opening iPad boxes to a solid team of student leaders who help run the freshman device orientation. They also test products, participate in focus groups, run Digital Learning Day and assist staff and students with tier 1 support. This year, they’ve been working on a school app and recently formally connected with an international network of student tech support teams. This network is run by our student help-desk mentor Larry Baker of Mercy High School in Farmington Hills. Participating with the tech team hub gives our students an exciting opportunity to collaborate with student tech teams from around the world. And all of this is without the pressure or expectation of a grade. Students volunteer for the Cougar Connection and participate on a daily basis during study hall.As we continue to enhance technology in learning at both schools, the role of the tech team is expanding. We’ve tinkered with blogging in the past, but this semester, it’s really getting off the ground. Follow this link to the Cougar Connection blog. And return often for updates. We’ll also be cross-posting from them on the grlearners2leaders tech-knowledgey blog page.The first post highlights one of the activities in the new makerspace at Catholic Central. And this week they’ll be sharing the story of the pre-engineering students who won a grant to funding their make-your-own drone project. Follow this link to get “the rest of the story”.If you’re interested in starting a student tech team in your school, contact the Catholic Central Tech Support Specialist, Josh Friederichs joshfriederichs@grcatholiccentral.org

Virtue In Media is a faith-based k-8 digital citizenship curriculum aligned to the ISTE standards. Click the image above for more information. use coupon code 'launch20' for 20% purchases before April 15.use 'launch10' for 10% off between April 16 and July 15.